Sarifina
I have thought a lot about this and I don't know what the reasoning behind not moving the character skills over is. But maybe offer a character preservation package for purchase. If you want to retain your character skill levels, knowlege, fame ect you can purchase a preservation package. This would be a way to get a injection of cash to help the game and leave the vets with the option of keeping their character or not. I would pay, and most likely would pay x 6 accounts as well. I can understand a complete item wipe if that is necessary to make necessary changes and clean out things that are being removed from the game (like cats) and changing dapper system although I don't like that idea in the least, I could swallow it if I could keep my character skills and knowlege in tact. Just a thought.....;.
I guess they need to look at all possible options. But, I don't think that's a truely viable solution either. There are probably some that would be willing to pay for a full character transfer, but I'm sure there are others that would take offense to the idea of having to pay to keep their characters. They probably feel they have already paid for them and maybe can't afford to pay again. I'm one of them. There are those that currently are F2P players that play that way because they can't afford the subscription. A lot of people are feeling the strains of a tight economy. Some of them have put a lot of effort into their characters too.